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In between classes at Everett Middle School, officer Rodriguez likes to stand in the hallways and watch the behavior of students as they pass from class to class.
SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez has a unique beat: a San Francisco middle school. She supervises about 600 students who attend Everett Middle School on Church Street not far from the station. At times she brings her pug Pumpkin to work with her. She finds the small dog helps her better relate and communicate with the young students.
{Brant Ward/San Francisco Chronicle}5/9/07 less

badge_angela148.JPG
In between classes at Everett Middle School, officer Rodriguez likes to stand in the hallways and watch the behavior of students as they pass from class to class.
SFPD officer Angela ... more

Photo: Brant Ward

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SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez stops and talks with social worker Stephen Emmi, who also works at the school. The two often discuss students and ways to help them. Her dog Pumpkin watches some students pass by.
SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez has a unique beat: a San Francisco middle school. She supervises about 600 students who attend Everett Middle School on Church Street not far from the station. At times she brings her pug Pumpkin to work with her. She finds the small dog helps her better relate and communicate with the young students.
{Brant Ward/San Francisco Chronicle}5/9/07 less

badge_angela293.JPG
SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez stops and talks with social worker Stephen Emmi, who also works at the school. The two often discuss students and ways to help them. Her dog Pumpkin watches ... more

Photo: Brant Ward

Image 3 of 7

SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez gets a hug from 6th and 7th grade counselor Adrienne Smith, in yellow, after they discussed the progress of a student.
SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez has a unique beat: a San Francisco middle school. She supervises about 600 students who attend Everett Middle School on Church Street not far from the station. At times she brings her pug Pumpkin to work with her. She finds the small dog helps her better relate and communicate with the young students.
{Brant Ward/San Francisco Chronicle}5/9/07 less

SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez gets a hug from 6th and 7th grade counselor Adrienne Smith, in yellow, after they discussed the progress of a student.
SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez has a unique beat: a San ... more

Photo: Brant Ward

Image 4 of 7

SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez listens to a student explain why he was wandering the hallways without a pass during school.
SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez has a unique beat: a San Francisco middle school. She supervises about 600 students who attend Everett Middle School on Church Street not far from the station. At times she brings her pug Pumpkin to work with her. She finds the small dog helps her better relate and communicate with the young students.
{Brant Ward/San Francisco Chronicle}5/9/07 less

SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez listens to a student explain why he was wandering the hallways without a pass during school.
SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez has a unique beat: a San Francisco middle school. She ... more

Photo: Brant Ward

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SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez brings her dog Pumpkin out of his carrier onto the asphalt playground at Everett Middle School.
SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez has a unique beat: a San Francisco middle school. She supervises about 600 students who attend Everett Middle School on Church Street not far from the station. At times she brings her pug Pumpkin to work with her. She finds the small dog helps her better relate and communicate with the young students.
{Brant Ward/San Francisco Chronicle}5/9/07 less

SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez brings her dog Pumpkin out of his carrier onto the asphalt playground at Everett Middle School.
SFPD officer Angela Rodriguez has a unique beat: a San Francisco middle school. She ... more

Photo: Brant Ward

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THE BADGE / She carries a gun and isnt afraid to pull the trigger. Shes done it before.

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It's lunchtime at Everett Middle School in San Francisco's Mission District. Officer Angela Rodriquez walks into the counseling office to find a young boy sitting in a chair with a forlorn look on his face.

"What's the matter?" she asks.

The boy unclenches his fist to show a very small cut on his index finger. He and his buddies had been horsing around in the hallway, he explains, and he hurt himself.

Rodriguez goes to a desk and gets a Band-Aid. She squats next to the boy, bulky in her blue uniform over bullet-proof vest and thick leather gun belt. She peels back the adhesive and carefully wraps the Band-Aid around the finger.

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"There," she says. "All better."

Rodriguez's beat is Everett Middle School at 17th and Church streets. She's the school resource officer, and she's there to keep the peace and coordinate school safety.

Everett is a tough school in a tough neighborhood, but it's a middle school, and filled with boys and girls in the 11-14 age range. Rodriguez, who works four 10-hour days, is at Everett almost every day she's on the job. She does a little bit of everything. She passes out food in the cafeteria, since she needs to be in the lunchroom at noon to prevent fights. She checks for hall passes when she spots a student out of class. She makes an occasional arrest and sometimes teaches classes on topics like substance abuse or violence prevention.

Behind the kind smile and Officer Friendly personality is a tough cop who carries a gun and isn't afraid to pull the trigger.

She's done it before.

Most of the kids at Everett come from poor families who live in an area plagued by drug and gang activity. A lot of kids are already in gangs, which is why the school insists they wear uniforms. Everyone wears black and white. Anything blue or red is strictly prohibited.

"Hey!" Rodriguez barks to a short blond-haired kid. "What's that in your ear?"

The boy stops and Rodriguez examines his earring. It has a tiny red stone. She makes him take it out.

A couple of times a week, Rodriguez takes her pug, Pumpkin, to work. She doesn't have to announce Pumpkin's presence, just dumps the doggy carrier in the hallway next to the counseling office. As soon as the kids catch sight of Pumpkin, the dog is swarmed. The kids want to pet her and play with her. They beg to be allowed to take her leash and walk her up and down the hallway or around the recess yard.

Young boys who swaggered down the street with the hard looks of future gang members break out huge smiles when Pumpkin runs at them.

One tough-looking kid recoiled when he got close to Pumpkin. "I don't like dogs," he said.

"Oh, well, then you have to come here," Rodriguez said, taking him by the hand and showing him how to approach the dog. "See? She's very friendly. You can pet her."

The boy relaxed visibly as Pumpkin took a lick of his hand and Rodriguez smiled.

It's hard to imagine Rodriguez in a gunfight, but that's where she found herself a little more than four years ago.

The shootout took place in 2001. Rodriguez and her partner, Officer Michael Wolf, were patrolling Aquatic Park around 5 a.m. when they spotted three people trying to steal construction equipment. One of the men ran to his Dodge Durango and drove it at Wolf. The officer shot at driver Randall Smith, who shot back as Rodriguez was dealing with the other suspects. Smith then drove the SUV at Rodriguez. She saw muzzle flashes coming from the vehicle and returned fire with her handgun.

Smith ran the Durango into the officers' patrol car and died from bullet wounds. He had a .45-caliber handgun in his hand, and police discovered a MAC-11 9mm machine pistol, a sawed-off shotgun and bulletproof vests in the SUV.

Wolf and Rodriguez were both awarded the gold medal of valor, the Police Department's highest honor.

Rodriguez says the incident doesn't haunt her. It was a valid shooting, she says. The other guys would have killed her or her partner. It was kill or be killed. She can live with that.

Rodriguez eventually transferred to Mission Station. About two years ago, she had the opportunity to switch from patrol to the school beat, and she took it.

She says the change had nothing to do with the shooting.

"I don't think working in the schools is any safer," she says. "It's a very vulnerable place. I've taken a loaded weapon off a student at Mission High."

Rodriguez says she likes working in the school. It's broadened her experiences as a cop, and she likes working with kids. She'd like to have some of her own some day.

"I want to show these kids a positive side of police officers," she says, because so many come from neighborhoods or families where the police officer is not your friend. "I think I've touched a lot of lives. I like it when a kid says, 'You're a cool officer.' "

In one way, Rodriquez is part of the Everett family. The teachers and staff know her by name, and everyone pretty much works together as a team.

And yet, a cop can never be anything but a cop.

"I'm not employed by the Unified School District, I'm employed by the San Francisco Police Department," she says. "In the end, I'm always going to be Officer Rodriguez, not Angela the human being.

"I feel like I'm a mom with a badge."

Chronicle reporter
John Koopman
and photographer Brant Ward are "embedding" with the San Francisco Police Department. Their stories will appear weekly in the Monday paper.